Multipurpose Urban Sensing Equipment – An EPS@ISEP 2018 Project
Mostafa Farrag
1, Damien Marques
1, Maria Bagiami
1, Maarten van der Most
1, Wouter Smit
1, Benedita Malheiro
1,2, Cristina Ribeiro
1,3, Jorge Justo
1, Manuel
F. Silva
1,2, Paulo Ferreira
1, and Pedro Guedes
11
ISEP/Porto – School of Engineering, Porto Polytechnic, Porto, Portugal [email protected]
WWW home page: http://www.eps2018-wiki3.dee.isep.ipp.pt/
2
INESC TEC, Porto, Portugal
3
INEB – Instituto de Engenharia Biom´ edica, Porto, Portugal
Abstract. This paper describes the development of a Multi-purpose Urban Sensing Equipment, named Billy, designed by a multinational and multidisciplinary team enrolled in the European Project Semester (EPS) at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP). The project is set to design, develop and test an interactive billboard in compliance with the relevant EU regulation and the allocated budget. The Team benefited from the different background, multidisciplinary skills and the newly acquired skills of the members, like marketing, sustainability and design ethics, in activities both inside and outside of the University. The challenge was to design a multi-purpose urban sensing and displaying equipment to inform citizens of nearby environmental conditions. The Team decided to design a system to monitor and display the temperature, humidity, air pressure and air quality of leisure areas, featured with a proximity detection sensor for energy saving. Billy will not only monitor and display this local information, but also the air quality determined by other billboards placed in other locations, creating a distributed urban sensing network. The system has been successfully prototyped and tested using the ESPduino Wi-Fi enabled micro-controller, different sensors and displays (screen and map-based). The results show not only that the prototype functions according to derived specifications and design, but that the team members were able to learn, together and from each other, how to solve this multidisciplinary problem.
1 Introduction
EPS challenges students from multiple educational backgrounds and nationali-
ties to join their proficiencies [5] to solve multidisciplinary real-life problems in
close collaboration. On the 26th of February 2018, ISEP assembled its EPS stu-
dents into four groups, including the current team composed of Maarten van der
Most, from Netherlands, 22 years old, studying Industrial Engineering and Man-
agement; Wouter Smit, also from Netherlands, 26 years old, studying Industrial
Design; Damien Cordeiro Marques, from France, 20 years old, studying Me- chanical Engineering; Maria Bagiami, from Greece, 23, studying Environmental Engineering; and Mostafa Farrag, from Scotland, 20, studying Electrical Power Engineering. The Team chose to develop an interactive billboard to monitor and display the temperature, humidity, air pressure and air quality of leisure areas.
By working together in a multidisciplinary team, the Team members had the opportunity to learn from each other and collectively, and achieve further than they would have individually.
Poor air quality has a negative impact on the quality of life. It causes many health issues, such as breathing or cardiovascular problems. These issues are even more critical in urban areas where there is often a poor air quality as a result of modern way of life [2]. The air in cities is polluted with small harmful particles. However, people are not fully aware of the actual level of air pollution.
Although there are smart phone applications which provide related information, there is still a great lack of knowledge about this topic, as there is no system or object providing real and trusted local information. This is the Team’s vision regarding the design of a smart billboard: a trusted equipment which informs and empowers people knowledge on how to improve air quality. This will not only benefit the public, but also governments by helping them to comply with the European Union (EU) rules [3].
In order to contribute to the minimisation of these problems, the team de- cided to build a connected billboard to provide citizens with real time air-related data concerning current and remote locations. The billboard was designed to measure local temperature, humidity and air pressure, estimate the local air quality, show the estimated air quality of the connected remote locations, dis- play useful information and advice on how to improve air quality. The final objective of Billy is to raise the public awareness by offering as much informa- tion and advice as possible and, thus, contribute to the improvement of the air quality and the reduction of health related problems.
The team searched for similar equipments and performed several studies on marketing, ethics and sustainability to design Billy as a smart billboard. Billy not only collects and shares information about the current local time, weather and air pollution, but informs on how to reduce the carbon footprint and on upcoming local activities. To design and develop Billy, the team had to integrate what they learned in their individual field of study. Billy main potential clients will be governmental bodies and local public authorities.
This paper is organised in six sections, including this introductory section.
Section 2 describes existing types of billboards; Section 3 details the background studies performed; Section 4 presents the design and development of the proto- type; Section 5 reports the tests and results; and Section 6 draws the conclusions.
2 Billboards
A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), initially
found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads and presenting large
(a) Painted billboard [6] (b) Human billboard [7]
(c) Mobile billboard [11] (d) Digital billboard [4]
Fig. 1: Types of billboards
advertisements to pedestrians and drivers and distinctive visuals, billboards are highly visible in the top designated market areas. Typically showing witty slo- gans, billboard advertisements are designed to catch public attention and create a memorable impression very quickly, leaving a lasting impression on readers.
They have to be short and easy to read because cars can drive by at high speed.
This section presents the different purposes of billboards, leading to the team’s decision to create Billy.
Figure 1 illustrates the most common types of billboards:
– Painted billboards: This traditional billboard displays a painted message or advertisement.
– Human billboards: The human billboard is a person who displays an adver- tisement. The person can just wear a T-shirt with a message, carry a small billboard or also “wear” the billboard. Frequently, the person will spin, dance or wear costumes with the promotional sign to attract attention.
– Mobile billboards: A mobile billboard, also known as “truck side advertis- ing”, is used for advertising on the side of a truck or trailer. Unlike a typical billboard, mobile billboards are able to go meet their target audience.
– Digital billboards: A digital billboard is a billboard that displays changing
digital images. Imagery and text are created using computer programs and
software. Digital billboards are primarily used for advertising, but they can also be adopted by public services.
3 Background Studies
The team decided to create Billy, a smart billboard, to collect and share publicly information on the weather and pollution, using IoT cloud. For sustainability reasons, the team chose to use wood as building material and a solar panel as renewable energy source. This section will present different background studies conducted by the team to define the proposed solution.
3.1 Marketing
Since the European Union has set the maximum allowed air pollution, the team decided to create a public product to display the air pollution and advise on how to improve the air quality in their area. Consequently, the team chose to target city councils and offer a multipurpose urban sensing equipment. Billy stands out from its competitor because it provides: (i) information about local and remote air pollution, indicating the spatial distribution of urban air pollution; and (ii ) advice on how an individual can improve the local air quality. The team has decided to use a differentiation strategy. The product will be promoted with direct marketing to the decision making entities of the city councils in Europe as a solution to measure air pollution, informing inhabitants with local information [10] on air pollution and how to mitigate it [1].
3.2 Eco-efficiency Measures for Sustainability
Engineers must adopt sustainable development practices when designing new products. Thus, the team took equally into account the environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainability in order to design a sustainable billboard.
Based on this study, the team chose to use environmental friendly materials, e.g., natural materials or materials which can easily be recycled and are not harmful to the environment. The team opted to display the air quality for social reasons and to use a power supply unit composed of a solar panel and battery for environmental and economic reasons. Moreover, by informing the public on how to protect against air pollution and on how to improve the air quality, the team increases the efficiency of billboard, making it even more sustainable [9].
3.3 Ethical and Deontological Concerns
In the ethical and deontological analysis, the team considered the production,
servicing and recycling of Billy. The focus of the company will be on honesty,
respect and high standards in every step of the production process, including
choosing suppliers and components, selling and marketing the product and pro-
viding a warranty of two years, even if it increases costs. In the case of breakdown,
the company will collect Billy from the customer to reuse or recycle the parts.
Team Billy will not use suppliers for whom it is unsure if they use child labour. In terms of environmental ethics, the decision to adopt a solar panel and a battery reduces the usage of fossil fuels.
4 Project Development
4.1 Pre-defined Requirements
The project proposal specified the mandatory use of the International System of Units, sustainable materials, low-cost hardware solutions, open source software and technologies, the compliance with the European Union (EU) Machine Di- rective (2006/42/CE 2006-05-17), EU Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive (2004/108/EC 2004 12 15), EU Low Voltage Directive (2014/35/EU 2016-04- 20), EU Radio Equipment Directive (2014/53/EU 2014-04-16), EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances (ROHS) in Electrical and EU Electronic Equipment Directive (2002/95/EC 2003-01-27), and a maximum budget of 100.00 e .
4.2 Functionalities
The main functionality of the billboard is to publicly display the temperature, humidity, air pressure and the air pollution. Billy is designed to sense these parameters, process the readings and display the results individually.
The map-based display is colour coded to indicate low, normal and high values of the air quality, using green and red light-emitting diodes (LED). The map of the enlarged urban area is dotted with green, amber and red LED over the locations of the billboards deployed in the urban area. It additionally displays complementary information about the air quality, health and safety, and public activities to assist citizens in keeping a high standard life style. Finally, Billy was designed to be echo-friendly as it is solar powered. It includes a photovoltaic system and a battery to sustain its operation day and night.
4.3 Design Structure
The structure of the product, which was drawn in SolidWorks, was divided into the top, middle and bottom part to make it easier to develop and assembly.
The top part holds the sustainable energy source – the solar panels – which powers the system. These solar panels are wired to the power unit through the hollow stand of the billboard. This part has several requirements: (i) be water- proof; (ii) be robust and vandal proof; (iii) be easy to assemble and disassemble for maintenance; (iv ) be easy to recycle; (v ) protect the solar panels; and (vi ) be easy to clean. To strengthen the structure, an additional piece was developed and attached to the top part and to the stand of the billboard. It makes the structure more robust and vandal proof and contributes to an attractive design.
The middle part – the core of the billboard – has to: (i) be attached to the
stand of the billboard; (ii ) be watertight; (iii ) have ventilation to make sure
(a) Iso front view (b) Iso back view
(c) Middle assembly (d) Top attachment
Fig. 2: 3D Model of the structure
the warmed up air can escape; (iv ) be dust proof (on the inside); (v) be easy to open, close and dissembled for maintenance; (vi ) house the control system, the map-based display with the LED indicators and the text-based display to inform and advise people, e.g., on how to reduce their ecological footprint.
The bottom part or stand is intended to hold the other parts. The bottom part has a few important requirements: (i) be robust to hold the complete struc- ture; (ii) be vandal proof; (iii) be adjustable to the deployment area (to position it as well as possible); (iv ) be fitted as different parts to build the product up at the location where it should be installed.
4.4 Control System
The billboard is equipped with a control system to implement the identified func-
tionalities. The power unit includes a photovoltaic solar panel for power supply
and a battery for energy saving. The ESPduino micro-controller, which includes
a Wi-Fi module, is responsible for reading, communicating and displaying the
local sensor values in the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display and on the map-based LED display as well as for obtaining and displaying the remote air quality on the map-based LED display. While the proximity detection sensor and gas sensor are directly connected to the ESPduino, the humidity, tempera- ture and air pressure sensors are connected through a signal conditioner to adapt the sensors signals to the micro-controller input requirements. The billboard is connected to an Internet of Things (IoT) cloud platform (ThingSpeak) to save and share information through the public Wi-Fi network. The values are dis- played on the LED display, using different colours to indicate the air quality status. Figure 3 displays Billy’s conceptual diagram.
Fig. 3: Conceptual diagram
Table 1 holds the maximum expected voltage, current and power consump- tion per component. Considering that the prototype will display the air quality
Table 1: Power budget
Component Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W)
Green LED 1.8 – 2.2 0.040 0.088
White LED 2.4 – 3.6 0.040 0.144
Red LED 1.8 – 2.7 0.040 0.108
MQ-135 5 0.150 0.750
BME280 1.2 – 3.6 0.000 0.000
Solar Panel 5 0.600 0.300
ESP8266 board 5 1.000 5.000
HC-SR04 5 0.015 0.075
OLED 3.3 – 5.0 0.020 0.100
of up to two locations (2 sets of red and green LED), it will need a power source capable of providing a current higher than 3.885 A and a power of at least 14.076 W. Based on this analysis, the team selected of a power source with 4.0 A and 27 W.
The control algorithm starts by initialising the parameters and configuring the micro-controller and, then, implements the control loop. This continuous loop performs the following tasks: (i ) sensor data acquisition and display (OLED);
(ii ) uploading of local air quality to ThingSpeak; (iii) downloading remote air quality (remote sites) from ThingSpeak; and (iv ) map-based air quality display.
The MQ135 measures the concentration of CO
2, NH
3, NO
x, benzene and alcohol in parts per million (ppm). According to [8], if the concentration value is below 500 ppm, the air quality is good and, otherwise, the air quality is bad.
Consequently, the green LED illuminates when the concentration value is below 500 ppm and, otherwise, the red light illuminates.
5 Tests and Results
The experimental set-up, which was assembled in a breadboard, includes the ESPduino micro-controller, the gas sensor (MQ-135), the humidity, temperature and air pressure sensor (BME280), the ultrasonic range sensor (HC-SR04), the OLED screen and a set of two of each red, white and green LED. Figure 4 displays the experimental set-up. The sensors were connected to the ESPduino
Fig. 4: Experimental set-up
(Arduino) as follows: (i) the MQ-135 is connected to A0; (ii ) the OLED, HC- SR04 and BME280 are connected to the Arduino via I2C interface; and (iii) the LED are directly plugged to the Arduino GPIO interface.
Figure 5 displays the assembled prototype. It includes the main map-based
LED display, the OLED and the complementary information panel bellow, ad-
vising people how to reduce their footprint. The different LED report the air quality of the different areas (green for good and red for bad). The OLED pro- vides the following information: (i) the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the device connected to the Wi-Fi; (ii ) the concentration of the measured gases in ppm; (iii ) the temperature in
◦C; (iv ) the relative humidity in %; (v ) the pressure in hPa; and (vi ) the output of the presence detection sensor.
Fig. 5: Prototype
5.1 Tests
The Team performed a set of functional tests to ascertain whether ‘Billy’ com- plied with the requirements and was ready to be transformed into a product for release in the market. The tests were performed as follows:
Temperature & Humidity Sensor: the sensor was placed near a cold source (cloth with ice) to lower the temperature and near a heat source (warm damp cloth) to raise the temperature and the humidity (warm damp cloth);
Air Quality Sensor: the sensor was placed near a gas source (kettle) to see if it detects gas and lights up the LED (green is low and red is high);
Proximity Detection Sensor: the sensor detected an object within the detection desired zone. First, in calibration mode, the sensor was adjusted to cover the desired distance and, then, was switched to regular mode;
Photovoltaic panel: the solar panel was placed outdoor and the voltage and
current charging the battery monitored.
Table 2 summarises the functionalities tested. First, the OLED test involved sending and displaying “Hello World” on the screen. Second, the temperature, humidity and air pressure (BME280) test comprehended reading and displaying the three values on the screen. Last, the gas (MQ-135) test consisted of reading the values and lighting the four LED accordingly.
Table 2: Functionalities tested
Ref Component Test
DISP OLED Display Draw strings and pictures Wi-Fi Wi-Fi on board Connection to WLAN BME BME280 sensor Temperature acquisition SR04 HC-SR04 sensor Motion detection MQ135 MQ-135 sensor Air quality measurement
LED LED Light the LED on
IOT IoT Cloud Communication with ThingSpeak
5.2 Results
Table 3 displays the expected and achieved results of the functional tests. The
Table 3: Results of the functional tests
Part Test Expected result Result
DISP.01 Draw a string String displayed Yes
DISP.02 Draw a picture Picture displayed Yes
Wi-Fi.01 Connect to Wi-Fi @IP displayed Yes
BME.01 Acquire temperature Temperature displayed Yes
BME.02 Warm the sensor Temperature raise displayed Yes
SR04.01 Acquire distance Distance displayed Yes
SR04.02 Establish proximity System activated/deactivated Yes
MQ135.01 Acquire ppm values ppm values displayed Yes
MQ135.02 Breath over ppm values increase displayed Yes
LED.01 Specify a colour code Corresponding LED on Yes
IOT.01 Send data toIoT Cloud Value displayed n the dashboard Yes IOT.02 Get ppm values from IoT Cloud Light LED accordingly Yes
UAT.01 Connect to Wi-Fi OLED displays @IP Yes
UAT.02 Detect presence OLED activation Yes
UAT.03 Measure temperature OLED displays temperature Yes
UAT.04 Measure ppm OLED displays ppm value Yes
UAT.05 Send data to IoT Cloud Data displayed on IoT dashboard Yes UAT.06 Display air quality of other bills Download data and light LED Yes
